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The Hierarchy of Power at McFarlane Toys is about to change! A new interview reveals that The Rock requested the company to make his Black Adam figure more ripped.
Black Adam will go down as a permanent mark on The Rock’s career. The movie was far from the worst thing ever, but it seemed as though every factor of the movie was set up to have Dwayne Johnson step as hard as he could onto the rake of public perception. It’s hard to find any details about the production of the movie that aren’t completely baffling in hindsight.
New details about the comedy of errors that was Black Adam still come out three years on from its release. The latest comes from Todd McFarlane, founder of McFarlane Toys, who serves as the main action figure company for DC properties. According to McFarlane, The Rock actually requested that the muscles on his figure be “bigger” during the initial approval phase.
“Recently, we had to get approval on ‘Black Adam,’ and Dwayne Johnson’s only comment was – which I think he was right – was, ‘Can you make me more ripped?’” McFarlane explained to Popverse. “It actually seems like a silly one, but it actually was right, because I think we all, in our mind, have a romantic version of many people, and the costume itself wasn’t showing off his muscles.”
“We were super accurate to the costume, it’s just that the costume wasn’t showing it off, so he just wanted us to show it off a bit more. We took a little bit of artistic license to do it. I think it was the right move.”
Black Adam’s Deep Tissue Issues
For as fun as it is to clown on The Rock for Black Adam, this was a valid criticism, which Todd McFarlane himself admits. However, the concept of Dwayne Johnson’s only request for his figure being for McFarlane Toys to make his muscles bigger is actually emblematic of the larger problems with Black Adam, and DC as a whole during the time.
The key issue with Black Adam was that it was trying its best to look cool. The project was, in basically every since, simply a star vehicle to show that The Rock could lead the DC franchise similar to Robert Downey Jr. with the MCU. All concerns were purely surface level, whereas the actual heart of the character being adapted was left on the cutting room floor.
The Rock is not solely responsible for the failure of Black Adam, no single person could be. However, the inherent superficial nature of “make the muscles bigger” when the figure itself looks nothing like the hero its based on shows that the mindset of the heads of DC at the time was far from where it needed to be.
Black Adam is currently streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the future of the DC Universe and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
